GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The owners of six vacant residential parcels on Hall Street SW between Division Avenue and U.S. 131 want to put up a building for retail businesses and second-floor apartments. But some neighbors are leery of changing the zoning to permit commercial land use, especially since a liquor license is being sought for the site.

If you were a city planner, would you rezone the land for business?

Read the synopsis below and scroll through the photos above, then cast a vote in our poll at right.

Should Grand Rapids rezone 6 parcels on Hall Street SW for commercial use?
If you feel strongly one way or the other, you can speak your mind to Grand Rapids City Commission at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 22, on the ninth floor of City Hall, 300 Monroe Ave. NW. The commission is expected to set a hearing date for Aug. 26, when it will consider the city Planning Commission’s recommendation to approve the rezoning.

Narinder Kaur and Steven McGhee want to erect a 2-story building with 10,000 square-feet of ground floor retail and 10 to 15 upstairs apartments on the north side of Hall Street SW. The properties are immediately west of a gas station owned by Kaur at the corner of Division Avenue.

Current city zoning pegs the land for housing, so a rezoning is needed to allow the project. An initial concept included a specialty liquor store as the main retail tenant, but no specific plan has been submitted.

“There’s definitely a market in that area (for liquor) and that’s what we initially planned with the development,” said Vik Singh, Kaur’s son. “We thought it would be a good business to anchor that down and get traffic from Division and the Silver Line bus line they’re putting in.

At hearings in June and earlier this month, the owner of the nearby Hall Street Party Store and members of Lamb of God Church voiced concern about the prospect of a liquor store at the proposed development site. They say the area already has too many places that sell booze, and they want to see new housing on the properties instead. Together, the six parcels are a little less than one acre.

“As far as just putting up houses there, it’s something difficult to do,” Singh said. “You can get a place for $500 a month (in that area). That wouldn’t make any sense to build a house and rent it out for $500 a month. We’ll be losing money if we’re building houses in there.”

Some other neighbors support the rezoning, saying it will bring new life to the land and create jobs.

Applications for licenses to sell packaged liquor at the location are currently under state review, and Singh said he does not plan to withdraw them. But “as far as the (liquor) store is concerned we put that on hold" due to public opposition and will explore other retail options for the site, he said.

"I don’t mind this guy if he puts some other kind of business in,” said Joe Hermiz, an owner of Hall Street Party Store. “(A liquor store) is just going to take business from another business. It’s not like you’re (adding) something that the neighborhood doesn’t already have.”

• The process

Grand Rapids Planning Commission this month recommended approval of the commercial rezoning, seeing the mixed retail/residential building as a suitable use for the land – given that there’s business zoning to the east and west of the site.

The application now goes to City Commission, Grand Rapids’ 7-member board of elected leaders. The commission on Tuesday, July 22, is expected to schedule a public hearing for Aug. 26, when it could make a decision on the rezoning.

The rezoning itself does not allow for a liquor store on the property, but it would enable Kaur and McGhee to seek future approval for alcohol sales.

“When they submitted their request (for rezoning) there was no request for alcohol and there still is no request for alcohol,” said Suzanne Schulz, the city’s planning director. “That’s a whole separate Planning Commission special land use if they do want a liquor (license). But as staff, given the reaction we’ve had from the community, we would discourage them from doing so. They could certainly always ask for that. They do have that right. However, I don’t know that they would be successful.

“I think they have gotten the message loud and clear that they shouldn’t even think about asking for it.”